The Orthogonal Galaxy (2 page)

“
Have you taken a class in
the planetarium before?” the brunette asked.

“
No,” admitted Joram.
“Seeing how I arrived a couple of minutes early, I thought I’d give
it a try. Let’s just say that it’s more comfortable than anything
in my apartment.”

“
Tell me about it. What
isn’t lumpy at my place is either broken down or completely missing
its upholstery. I’m Kather Mirabelle, but my friends call me Kath.”
Kath extended her hand, which Joram accepted graciously.

“
I’m Joram. Joram Anders.”
Joram was grateful for the hospitality and acquaintance. Since
arriving at CalTech a few days earlier, Joram had had little
opportunity to meet any of his new Southern California
neighbors.

“
Nice to meet you, Joram,”
Kath said cheerfully. “What year are you?”

“
First year grad student,”
replied Joram. It still seemed amazing to hear himself say it. The
first college graduate of his family, many back home found Joram’s
penchant for education, and particularly science difficult to
grasp.

“
Really! So am I!” said
Kath. “Are you in the astronomy department, then?”

“
Yes,” answered Joram.
“And you?”

“
Naturally. My
undergraduate degree was in meteorology,” Kath responded, “but I’ve
always thought astronomy to be fascinating.”

“
Have you heard anything
about Professor Zimmer”, Joram inquired of his
companion.

Kather cocked her head in
surprise, and replied, “Well, yes. He’s the most famous
astrophysicist in the world.”

“
Well, yeah,” Anders
smiled slightly at his poorly phrased question, “but what I meant
was, do you know anything about him as a profess—”.

Joram’s words were cut
short as he noticed an immediate quieting of the chatter throughout
the room. A door had opened in the front of the room, which Joram
had not previously noticed. Through the opening, a tall man in his
sixties with graying hair strode through confidently and quickly.
He was attired conservatively with dark gray slacks, white shirt,
navy blue striped tie, and black leather shoes. Shutting the door
behind him, he lunged for the rostrum in the center of the stage
and tapped on the microphone a couple of times. Responding readily
to the test, the man cleared his throat and introduced
himself.

“
Good afternoon. My name
is Carlton Zimmer and it is my good fortune to have an opportunity
to instruct you in this astronomy class this term.” His voice was
raspy, yet confident. He articulated smoothly delivering his words
with a pleasant tone that matched a warm smile. With a full head of
hair, more white than gray, Zimmer showed signs of his age. Joram
sensed that the dark rings around his eyes indicated both a lack of
sleep and an abundance of stress. Joram wasn’t surprised to make
this observation, as he had already presupposed that the successes
of a world-renowned scientist would not come without significant
workloads.

Joram’s heart started
racing again. Standing just thirty feet before him was a man he
instantly recognized. How many times had he seen his picture next
to an article in the astronomy journals he kept up with on the
Internet? How many times had he seen him interviewed on the Science
Channel or other television programs honoring him for his prolific
career? While he did appear taller in person, and his voice
certainly deeper than it did on TV, he nevertheless recognized him
almost as well as he would recognize his own father.

“
Many of you have varying
degrees of interest in this subject,” Zimmer continued as he
pierced the room with an intense glare, as if he were determining a
priori those who would succeed—or fail—in his class. “Some of you
are undergraduates with a minor interest in astronomy. Others are
first year grad students trying to make a life out of this. Others
simply needed the elective, and the time slot just happened to fit
your schedule. But whatever your motives are for being here, my job
is to make sure that it is worth your time and effort.

“
While these great
facilities make it possible to obtain a varied degree of
instruction,” the Professor gestured to the vast dome overhead with
his right hand, “I hope that your expectations are such that you
are not just here to enjoy a good light show. While we will
certainly have opportunity to fire up the sky overhead, I find that
the seats are too comfortable to allow for much real learning to
occur when they are reclined.”

Professor Zimmer then
proceeded to announce some important policies which each student
must respect. He made clear that the doors would be locked by five
minutes after the beginning of class each day, in order to avoid
any “disturbances in the force” of the educational process. The
attempt at humor was not a success, simply because he often forgot
that his students, so far removed from his generation, usually
didn’t recognize obscure references to the rather ancient pop
culture with which he was at least familiar through his studies of
all things science fact and fiction. He reiterated, just as the
signs did outside each entrance that while the room may have the
appearance of a movie theater, food and beverage were strictly
prohibited. He allowed the students to then synchronize their
Readers with the selected readings of the class. Everybody except
Joram rifled through their backpacks and extracted their iText
Readers.

As Kath began her
download, she raised her brow slightly and whispered in Joram’s
direction, “Aren’t you going to download the texts?”

Smiling, Joram responded,
“I downloaded it—” Refusing to appear too zealous, Joram paused in
order to replace the phrase ‘three months ago’ with “—before the
semester started.”

Turning his head back
towards the front of the room, he thought he noticed the professor
staring at him with a slight frown on his face. Joram’s stomach
sank. What a lousy first impression to make on the man he most
admired. While the noise of backpack zippers would’ve certainly
drowned out the exchange between the two new friends, he was sure
that Zimmer had noticed the verbal exchange between the two
classmates. While he had hoped that sitting in the center of the
room would make him less noticeable, the opposite had actually
occurred, because he was now sitting right in front of the
professor at his eye level.

Once the room had been
restored to its previous state of attentiveness, Professor Zimmer
continued.

“
By way of introduction to
our study this semester, who can tell me why the study of astronomy
is important in our society today?” This was a loaded and sensitive
question to ask, for in this society, there was a decreasing public
opinion of the field. Professor Zimmer knew as well as anybody that
many murmurings were taking place in Washington D.C. regarding
federal funding of astronomy programs. “We should keep our feet on
the ground and worry about the problems that are right next door,
instead of those that are thousands of light years away,” was a
common call among some aspiring politicians.

As Zimmer had expected,
there was no response from anybody in the class. “Now surely some
of you are here, because you believe there is merit to the field of
astronomy. Why should we study astronomy?”

Joram saw a rather
tentative hand slowly rise down in the front, right side of the
room. Professor Zimmer, clipping a lapel microphone to his tie,
ventured towards the student.

“
What is your name, young
man?” asked Professor Zimmer.

“
Farrem Tanner,” answered
the young man.

“
Well, Mr. Tanner,”
continued the professor, with a smile, “I’m glad to see there is
somebody in my class who is here for a good reason, someone who
believes there is some value to this field of study. Tell me. Why
should we study astronomy?”

“
Well, sir,” Farrem began,
“It gives us a better understanding of ourselves and our position
in the universe when we study astronomy.”

“
Well said, Mr. Tanner.”
Zimmer nodded his approval and warmly congratulated his student for
his answer and his courage to be the first to speak up on a
controversial subject. “We can’t gain a comprehensive understanding
of the physics which rules our world, if we limit our field of
vision to the Earth. A study of geology can teach us much about the
world we live in, but a study of astronomy can teach us much more
about the universe we live in, can’t it?”

Zimmer returned to the
center of the room, and leaned against the lectern in an attempt to
provide a more casual feel and thereby encourage more
participation. “Anybody else care to continue on this course of
discussion?”

Another answer came from
somebody sitting a couple of rows behind Joram. “Professor, there
are tangible benefits as well. By understanding the forces in the
universe, we are able to place satellites into orbit, which improve
our quality of life.”

“
Do you mean,” prodded
Professor Zimmer, “that you are able to get thousands of TV
stations from around the world in your dormitory
lounge?”

A few laughs indicated
that the class was relaxing.

“
No, sir,” corrected the
student. “I’m thinking about the safety of airlines that use the
advanced Precision Global Positioning System and weather warning
satellites to avoid collisions and hazards.”

“
Very well,” nodded the
professor. “Please accept my apologies for a premature judgment of
your thoughts, Mr…”

“
Johnson. Marrett
Johnson.”

“
Thank you, Mr. Johnson
for your response.”

With yet another hand,
Professor Zimmer acknowledged that he could see deep into the back
of the arena, in spite of the track lighting which shined brightly
onto the professor.

“
Yes, the young lady in
the back,” professor Zimmer craned and gestured to the back
row.

“
Professor, my name is
Cintera Fernandez, and I have a relative who enjoys the benefit of
occasional zero-gravity therapy sessions as a relief from severe
rheumatoid arthritis.”

“
That’s marvelous, isn’t
it, Miss Fernandez?” began the professor. “I was thrilled to see
the cost of low-orbit travel become reasonable enough in the last
couple of decades to allow the passenger airline industry to
venture above the atmosphere so readily. With the low-cost of
extra-atmospheric travel, doctors are able to prescribe these
therapy sessions that you mention. Thank you, Miss
Fernandez.”

Zimmer was growing bored
with all of the trite answers and decided to shift direction a
little “But, class, I fail to see why any of these excuses gives us
any reason to consider galaxies which reside many, many light years
away from us. And yet, we’re going to be doing just that in this
classroom this year. What benefits will you as a student receive by
such a study?”

For the first time, Zimmer
saw his students reaching deep into their intellect, straining for
the answer. He was pleased with the effective result of a few
moments of silence.

“
Let me
ask what I hope to be an easier question.” Zimmer spoke more
quietly now. He had the attention of his students, but he wanted it
to be more focused. “When you look at the night sky with the naked
eye, you can see a few thousand stars.” He paused. “That is… when
you are
not
standing in Pasadena, California,” Zimmer paused for the
laughter to subside, “but rather on Palomar Mountain, where our
university’s observatory is located just a few hours away from
here, you can
indeed
see a few thousand stars with the naked eye. Which of these
stars is closest to our own Sun?”

Joram’s heart gave a leap.
Carlton Zimmer was now asking a question about his star! Joram
looked around, but no hands went up to indicate knowledge of that.
Come on! This was a bright group of people, and not one of them
could answer that question? Maybe they were all still being too
timid on the first day of class. Joram tried to keep his hand from
shaking nervously as he projected it slowly into the
air.

“
Yes, sir,” acknowledged
the professor without any apparent recollection of his earlier
disapproval of the interlude between Joram and Kath. “Please tell
us, if you will, the star which is closest in proximity to our own
Sun.”

“
That would be Proxima
Centauri, Sir.” answered Joram confidently.

“
That would be correct,”
approved the professor. “What is your name, young man?”

“
Joram Anders,
sir.”

At this, the professor
appeared to hesitate for just a moment, as if straining to remember
why that name should sound so familiar to him. It came to
him.

“
Ah, yes,” interjected
Professor Zimmer, “Joram Anders... from Kansas, is it?”

Joram gave a start. How on
earth did one of the world’s most renowned astrophysicists know
this obscure farm boy from Wichita? As if reading his mind, the
professor proceeded. “Sorry, Mr. Anders, if I have concerned you by
knowing more about you than you would have expected. I do assure
you that I am just an astronomer, and not also a mind-reading
astrologer.” Roars of laughter ensued.

“
After returning from a
summer in South America, I had been reviewing all of the first-year
graduate applications just last week, and I happened to remember
your name, because I don’t believe I’ve had the honor of
instructing anyone from Kansas before, especially one with such
amazing credentials with which you come to this
institution.”